M e n u

Lets be an artist now

For this moment, sit alone.

Allow the buzz of the world to pass and listen closely to your heart’s desire. Perhaps, you would hear this voice inside of you. This voice is urging you shyly, slowly but surely, like a tortoise emerging from its’ shell. It could be so soft that it is almost inaudible to you, because you have never given it too much attention. But give it a little more time, you would hear that this voice in you is crying out for you to play, to play boundlessly and freely.

It wishes for you to celebrate the moment and simply live in the now.

If you are patient to realize, you hear that this voice is nurturing an artist. Not the hot shot mega million rock star kind of artist, but the artist who is approachable, the artist, who is someone real, someone like you. There is an artist in you waiting to emerge if only you believe.

We are all born to create.

We spend much of our childhood imagining that we are captains sailing the ferocious sea, the jungle explorers stumbling on the next miracle herb for mankind, or even the sages working to solve the puzzle of the grand web of life. Of course, we might have one or two teddy bears which we would do voice over for. And we host our own kids’ entertainment channel, on par with Teletubbies and Blue Clues.

The world is full of possibilities and magic.
Then, we go to school where creating become mandatory, more than that, creativity becomes a chore and is stuffed into a box of grades and criticism. At the same time, we have to manage living in the cauldron of grades, expectations, mini-skirts, and the funny feeling towards the opposite sex. Bit by bit, we lose that little connection with simply making things up.

There, I say it, creating art isn’t anything noble, it isn’t all about creating The Last Supper, Mona Lisa or David. Yes, it could become something recognized, but art, strips to its’ base, is just making things up.

Art is play.

The word play is defiant, it rejects fitting into a singular form.

Play could involve legos, words, bodily movements, colors, flowers, cars, papers, photos, aubergines, chickpeas, knives, seedlings and so much more. Play would involve destruction and creation, no matter which form it takes. Even writers have to continuously depart with words they love. Art is a micro version of nature, the constant cycle of destruction and creation. Perhaps it is this reason why one could feel so much alive and at one with the universe when creating art. Some would call this experience being in the flow. Whatever you call it, it is real and so real that sometimes everything else becomes an illusion.

When you create art, you chuck the ominous question of the purpose of one’s existence to one side.

You could leave that to the philosophers to figure and argue among them for now. At this moment, when you are at one with your art, your soul resonates with the rhythm of the universe. And it is particularly in this state that you understand that this is all that you need.

All the layers of crises fall apart. and

They cease to exist.

Others might ask if this is your form of escapade from the reality. And perhaps, this is the time to retrieve the question on the purpose of one existence and to question reality. What is reality exactly? Is it this environment of sterility and control whereby your every action could be spied by a particular person? Is it reality where you have to be living under surveillance and thronging among the crowd anonymously? Is this what is to be perceived as reality? The subject of reality is as broad as play could be, so why would one shackle another on the threat of reality?

You could be a dancer feeling the vibrations of music in our limbs, or a poet riding the tempo of words, or a photographer capturing the light of fleeting nature into eternity. This you could all be and even more in your life. You could be a low-wage worker, a farmer, a white collar, a top-level executive or a medical doctor. Whatever it is, you need not be in constant conflict with the voice crying out to create art. Because art transcends the boundaries of identities and labels. And through art, you would discover that you have lost yourself only to ultimately reconnect with the universe once more.

##Only if you listen to that timid voice inside you.
Only if you take the courage to step in faith.

Then, through many cycles of construction, destruction, agony, happiness, emptiness, contentment, separation, unity and transcending, your world could never be the same again.